A/N: I hope you enjoy this little idea I had. I do not own the Worst Witch

Changing Before Her Eyes

Esmerelda Hallow was sitting on her bed writing an essay due for the new term at Cackles Academy, the young girl had just finished her third year at school but still had quite a bit of work she had to do over the summer.

For once, Esmerelda was home alone, well apart from the many servants and maids that worked in the mansion but her family were out, her little sister Ethel was at Drusilla's working on their homework and Sybil the youngest sister was out with their parents gathering together the school things the girl needed for her first year at Cackles.

Esmerelda put her pen down and sighed not able to concentrate, today was the day every summer her and her sisters would go on holiday with their grandma, which had stopped when the woman had moved a few years ago, she missed the holidays a lot as they were some of the best times with her sisters.

Esmie stood up walking to her old television and looked through the small collection of videos there, they were all videos from their holidays and Esmerelda put one in wanting to pretend she was there.

She remembered this year. Sybil had not gone with them because she had being recovering from a small operation, neither Esmerelda or Ethel had wanted to go without Sybil but their grandma wanted to take them to get their minds of Sybil, the youngest was perfectly fine but the eldest two still panicked.

The video started with Ethel waving to the camera, Esmerelda was eleven then about to start her first year of Cackles and Ethel was nine.

"You know the first thing you have to do when you enter a hotel?" a young Esmerelda asked her grandma. A difference was Esmie was the one with braces not Ethel.

"Jump on the beds" Ethel replied not giving their gran time to respond.

"Let's go at the same time" Esmie told her sister as the girls each got ready to run towards the beds.

"1...2...3" Ethel shouted as both girls ran and jumped onto a bed.

Ethel landed on the bed perfectly fine but the same could not be the same for the eldest, the young girl bellyflopped onto the bed and then fell straight of it as she had overthrown herself.

Ethel burst into laughter, laughing her head of at her sisters epic fail and the video showed the young girl laughing as she lay back on the bed and Esmerelda lying on the floor red faced and laughing clutching her stomach which she had hurt whilst falling.

Ethel literally laughed for ages until she clutched her stomach unable to catch her breathe.

"I literally can't breathe" the young girl said laughing more as her sister joined her on the bed tears streaming out of her eyes.

"Well that was stupid" Esmerelda said as she sat on the bed putting her arm around her sister.

"Esmie, how are you looking forward to starting at Cackles?" their grandma asked in the background.

"Mmm" young Esmie said thinking "I am excited but I would rather stay with Ethie and Sybil" the young girl replied.

"I am not looking forward to it" Ethel said in response "What if she finds a new best friend?" the girl asked voicing her concerns.

"No way, Ethie and Sybil are my besties" Esmerelda said hugging and squeezing her sister who hugged her back happily.

The video carried on and it was bittersweet for Esmerelda seeing her and her sister so happy in it when everything was so different now.

"I bet they do that at Cackles" Ethel said tripping as she climbed the stairs and hearing her sister laughing at her.

"Shut up Esmie" Ethel replied but laughed herself at her stupidity.

"I love how whenever one of us injuries ourselves the other sisters laugh" Esmie said laughing.

"It is because we always injury ourselves whilst being stupid" Ethel replied beaming.

There was hours of footage on the video one of Esmerelda's favourite bits was about halfway through of her and Ethel dancing even though they both had two left feet, Ethel span around, tripped, then fell into her sister and they both fell onto the floor laughing and then somehow both fell asleep on the floor.

The video was hard to watch, Esmerelda and Ethel were once normal girls who liked to laugh and have fun as well as study, it had always being hard for the girls to get on with other people so they were best friends as well as sisters and they spent all their time together and with Sybil, the three of them loved to be together.

The thing that was hardest for Esmerelda though was seeing Ethel so happy. The girl laughing and beaming and joking around not worrying about tests and who was better, and the young blonde always seemed to have a sparkle in her eyes, it was actually something people used to comment on when they met her and indeed in the video Esmerelda could clearly see it, she had it to but it was much easier to see in Ethel's lighter eyes.

It was when Esmerelda started at Cackles it changed, somehow the fact Ethel was treated different had not mattered before, the girls were to busy having fun to worry about who was getting affection but it was when Esmerelda was forced to leave her sister with their parents she began to change.

Esmerelda had ignored it at first, told herself not to be silly as she saw her sisters happiness becoming non existent a little bit more when she saw her. At the beginning of the year the girl was completely happy but over the months Esmerelda was at school she began to completely change, everytime she mirrored her some of her happiness, some of her spark, had gone.

Esmerelda had changed too, she threw herself into her work trying not to think about the way she was losing her sister and best friend and the girl eventually forgot herself how to have fun, Esmerelda soon realised with her gone Ethel was discovering their parents treatment of her and it was taking away everything that was her.

So much so the holiday video from the next year which was also the last time they had gone was worlds away from the one she had just watched. The video did not start with the girls jumping on the bed or laughing, it started with Ethel sat on her bed reading but it was hard to believe it was the same child. She was not happy or smiling she just sat there stone-faced looking bored.

"Come on Ethel give us a smile" their grandma said wanting the girl to be happy on her holiday.

Ethel then gave the smile Esmerelda had gotten used to over the last few years, the tiny smile for a split second which had no happiness to it at all, that was the way Ethel smiled now, or she smirked but her old smile was gone.

"Esmerelda what are you doing?" their grandma asked and indeed the oldest looked different too, no longer happy now she had lost her best friend and sister.

"I have homework" Esmerelda replied simply.

"Yes grandma, leave Esmie alone she has to do her perfect essay" Ethel replied showing she was now bitter towards her sister.

The thing that killed Esmerelda the most though was Ethel's eyes were no longer sparkling with happiness, they were empty and full of sadness, the girl's happiness had been killed by their dysfunctional family life and Ethel had changed into a completely different person.

As Esmerelda switched of the video she got out the old photo album she had looking at pictures of her her and her sisters happy, carefree and loving life and she found herself crying and wiped her eyes sadly.

The thing was people always said they were so lucky, a luxurious rich life with two parents and they had everything they could want but happiness did not come with that, the money did not make her family less dysfunctional, Sybil luckily right now was not to damaged but Ethel and herself certainly were.

But the girl carried the hope inside her that one day they could go back to how it was in old times even though she knew it would never go back exactly to how it was because there was way to much hurt but Esmerelda hoped that one day she would see that spark in her sister's eyes again and see a little bit of her old sister, her old friend coming back to her.